Nature, politics and the growing need for missile defence systems

Nature does its part, even if it takes time. The nature in this case is Israel’s multi-tiered rocket and missile defence system. Some of the tiers are operational, others in accelerated development.

The world knows that the threats directed towards Israel have resulted in an operational defence system that other countries can only dream of.

But politics ruins everything. When India started to think about a national missile defence programme, the Israeli Arrow 2 anti-ballistic missile system was a natural candidate. But the Americans were not enthusiastic about allowing Israel to sell the interceptor, which was developed with help from their funds. That forced India to start an indigenous development program. At this point the very tight defence ties between New Delhi and Jerusalem went into action and now Israeli companies are assisting Indian industry in developing a very advanced ballistic missile defence system.

Almost the same process is happening now in Poland. First it was the US that offered to deploy its ballistic missile interceptors in the eastern European country. But changes in the US have halted the process. Not the Polish concern, however.

And now the Polish ministry of defence has initiated a programme to deploy a very complex anti-ballistic missile defence system.

American companies Raytheon and Lockheed Martin are there with MBDA as the European competitor. And in recent weeks it became clear that Israel has not been left out of the competition.

The Polish experts were in Israel and have been briefed about the Rafael/Raytheon “David’s Sling” long-range rocket and aerial target interceptor now in the final development phases.

The competition will be very hot. But one thing has been proven – more and more countries understand that they need systems to defend themselves from missiles and rockets. What were once anti-aircraft guns are now very advanced air defence systems.